I am often asked what digital piano is good for a beginner. I recently decided to go and have a look for myself at what was available for entry level keyboards because I wanted to pass on some informed information. So, over the course of a week, I visited a number of music stores and played a lot of digital pianos. I found them all to be very good. I haven’t given pricing, because this can vary between dealers. Just do your homework, research the models in the list below, and some good deals can be found. But I would say that for a decent digital piano, you can expect to pay between $800 to $1200, (perhaps a touch more or less!) when buying the keyboard, piano stand, 3 pedal attachment, and a stool. I did not include higher priced options. I did play a few, and they were of course great, but at $1,000 extra I decided to narrow my search and comments to the more affordable, yet more than adequate range for the beginner to intermediate student.
Please note that this review is not exhaustive, and if I had more time, I could easily include other options. Also, I don’t promise my information is 100% accurate. I tried, but it’s best to verify everything before you make a decision. Therefore, I’m open to correction if you find something that is incorrect.
There are so many models and brands, and so much information to sort through, I picked just a few models that I thought would meet the requirements of beginner to intermediate students.
I also narrowed my search further when I found there were five basic things that I personally would want in a digital piano.
Five basic things to look for:
(1) preferably 88 keys. Beginners often have to play the lowest and highest keys of the piano whilst exploring the piano, and it can be very disconcerting to find that their keyboard at home is missing the notes they used in a lesson if you have a 76 key or 66 key piano!
(2) weighted keys.
(3) piano bench/stand (rather than X stand).
(4) blue tooth capability. Whilst this is not always necessary, I use an app which can play backing tracks whilst the student can play along. So, if you can get it, do, but I did find a few great keyboards which did not have this capability. It is not a deal breaker because you can always use a portable USB speaker.
(5) three pedal unit availability. This is quite important. Students do start to use the pedal quite early. Some good units have a single sustain pedal which will do. Most keyboards come with a footswitch, but I’m not a fan. In my opinion, they can be noisy and quite difficult to learn a good legato pedal technique. Some three pedal units come either fixed to a board across the bottom of the keyboard stand, or fixed from the top of the unit. A fixed unit is much better. Students tend to move around quite a bit in the lesson, so I can only imagine it will be the same at home! A pedal unit which is not attached could tend to wander a bit with little feet that can’t keep still, although most of them seem to have a rubber underside to prevent slippage. See below for pictures of the different types of pedals.
See below for a copy of my review with a short summary of the various options, and a look at a few of the entry level models. You can also download it if you like.
Please note that this review is not exhaustive, and if I had more time, I could easily include other options. Also, I don’t promise my information is 100% accurate. I tried, but it’s best to verify everything before you make a decision. Therefore, I’m open to correction if you find something that is incorrect.
There are so many models and brands, and so much information to sort through, I picked just a few models that I thought would meet the requirements of beginner to intermediate students.
I also narrowed my search further when I found there were five basic things that I personally would want in a digital piano.
Five basic things to look for:
(1) preferably 88 keys. Beginners often have to play the lowest and highest keys of the piano whilst exploring the piano, and it can be very disconcerting to find that their keyboard at home is missing the notes they used in a lesson if you have a 76 key or 66 key piano!
(2) weighted keys.
(3) piano bench/stand (rather than X stand).
(4) blue tooth capability. Whilst this is not always necessary, I use an app which can play backing tracks whilst the student can play along. So, if you can get it, do, but I did find a few great keyboards which did not have this capability. It is not a deal breaker because you can always use a portable USB speaker.
(5) three pedal unit availability. This is quite important. Students do start to use the pedal quite early. Some good units have a single sustain pedal which will do. Most keyboards come with a footswitch, but I’m not a fan. In my opinion, they can be noisy and quite difficult to learn a good legato pedal technique. Some three pedal units come either fixed to a board across the bottom of the keyboard stand, or fixed from the top of the unit. A fixed unit is much better. Students tend to move around quite a bit in the lesson, so I can only imagine it will be the same at home! A pedal unit which is not attached could tend to wander a bit with little feet that can’t keep still, although most of them seem to have a rubber underside to prevent slippage. See below for pictures of the different types of pedals.
See below for a copy of my review with a short summary of the various options, and a look at a few of the entry level models. You can also download it if you like.
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.